Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - Goose Creek and Creole ramblings in history

mensplace · December 16, 2009

It is fascinating to me to see how a simple question on varieties (wish I had a tomato family tree) can lead to a morning’s quest for information. In looking over tomatoes for hot/humid areas, I went first to some Florida research history and then was delighted to be led to Goose Creek and Creole. Those familiar with the French Huguenot & French Acadian cultures and foods of Charleston are well aware of the similar climates and foods.
But, in going further back, the coastal South Carolina area was originally settled by the Spanish back in 1514 and held, except for a period around 1562 when the French arrived, but returned to the Spanish who built forts in Parris Island, Jekyll Island, and St. Simons Island.
During that whole period, there was frequent contact with the Cherokee, Catawba, Yemessee, and Creek Indians. Thing is, I cannot buy the story that the Spanish were responsible for bringing the tomato to the Indians. I live right next to Etowah mounds and have studied the Cherokee and Aztec cultures. Etowah was in fact home to an ancient and huge Cherokee culture that dated back to the pre-Columbian times with extensive trade routes that reached well out to the west, where they received items from Middle American tribes, who, in turn, had a reach down into South America. The similarities of food, language, and cultures are countless.
Almost all of the land that I own here was owned by the Cherokee until around 1838. Some fled to the Appalachians but most went to Oklahoma. BUT, for long before that many of the Cherokee owned large plantations, had intermarried with the Scots, and their knowledge of agriculture had been considerable for hundreds of years. That Cherokee culture spanned Georgia and Carolina.

Did the Spaniards bring the tomatoes or were they already long known by the Indians? Already, “in 1687, the English Herbalist, William Solomon, observed tomatoes growing in then Spanish settlements along the eastern coastline as far as Parris Island's Santa Elana Mission. French Huguenots and British Colonist settlers as well as Caribbean residents settling in the southern areas were familiar with the love apple and its uses.
Henry Laurens, Merchant and plantation owner, grew tomatoes at his home in Charles Town. On July 31, 1764, he sent some to Mrs. Creamer, wife of the overseer on his plantation. Ten years later the first published reference to tomatoes appeared in the Gardener's Kalendar for South-Carolina.”

Either way, I am glad to be preparing to sample growing and tasting the Goose Creek and the Creole. My family has been enjoying that low country food since the sixteen hundreds and it just my heart good to think of my privateer forebear from Seewee Bay enjoying a good tomato sandwich in those hot/muggy summers along with some Carolina barbecue brought from the islands by other buccaneers.

December 16, 2009	#1
mensplace Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: USA Posts: 1,013	Goose Creek and Creole ramblings in history It is fascinating to me to see how a simple question on varieties (wish I had a tomato family tree) can lead to a morning’s quest for information. In looking over tomatoes for hot/humid areas, I went first to some Florida research history and then was delighted to be led to Goose Creek and Creole. Those familiar with the French Huguenot & French Acadian cultures and foods of Charleston are well aware of the similar climates and foods. But, in going further back, the coastal South Carolina area was originally settled by the Spanish back in 1514 and held, except for a period around 1562 when the French arrived, but returned to the Spanish who built forts in Parris Island, Jekyll Island, and St. Simons Island. During that whole period, there was frequent contact with the Cherokee, Catawba, Yemessee, and Creek Indians. Thing is, I cannot buy the story that the Spanish were responsible for bringing the tomato to the Indians. I live right next to Etowah mounds and have studied the Cherokee and Aztec cultures. Etowah was in fact home to an ancient and huge Cherokee culture that dated back to the pre-Columbian times with extensive trade routes that reached well out to the west, where they received items from Middle American tribes, who, in turn, had a reach down into South America. The similarities of food, language, and cultures are countless. Almost all of the land that I own here was owned by the Cherokee until around 1838. Some fled to the Appalachians but most went to Oklahoma. BUT, for long before that many of the Cherokee owned large plantations, had intermarried with the Scots, and their knowledge of agriculture had been considerable for hundreds of years. That Cherokee culture spanned Georgia and Carolina. Did the Spaniards bring the tomatoes or were they already long known by the Indians? Already, “in 1687, the English Herbalist, William Solomon, observed tomatoes growing in then Spanish settlements along the eastern coastline as far as Parris Island's Santa Elana Mission. French Huguenots and British Colonist settlers as well as Caribbean residents settling in the southern areas were familiar with the love apple and its uses. Henry Laurens, Merchant and plantation owner, grew tomatoes at his home in Charles Town. On July 31, 1764, he sent some to Mrs. Creamer, wife of the overseer on his plantation. Ten years later the first published reference to tomatoes appeared in the Gardener's Kalendar for South-Carolina.” Either way, I am glad to be preparing to sample growing and tasting the Goose Creek and the Creole. My family has been enjoying that low country food since the sixteen hundreds and it just my heart good to think of my privateer forebear from Seewee Bay enjoying a good tomato sandwich in those hot/muggy summers along with some Carolina barbecue brought from the islands by other buccaneers.